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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Brown Butter and Bourbon Pound Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This cake will go down in family annuls as one that nearly rent years of marital bliss. It is a brown butter pound cake that is made with a copious amount of bourbon. It was made for a derby day party that we, in the end, could not attend, but for which I had committed a dessert. I decided to make this cake because it was unusual, mercifully easy to make, and its use of bourbon would connect it to Derby Day and the state of Kentucky. Now, before I go any further, I must tell you that I don't know a lot about hard liqueur. Bourbon is bourbon as far as I'm concerned, so, in the course of making this cake, I grabbed the first bottle I found in the pantry and went about my work. It turns out I grabbed a bottle of special "sippin' whiskey" that the Silver Fox keeps on hand for a friend who visits us sporadically. I was glibly pouring a cup and a half of something called Jefferson's Presidential Select into the cakes, when my beloved walked into the kitchen and did the guy version of nearly fainting. Apparently, I was using the champagne of bourbons in my pound cakes. Who knew? Were the cakes worth it? The brown butter gives the cake a unique richness and nutty flavor. The bourbon keeps it really moist and its flavor blends nicely with the butter. The cake lacks eye appeal, so, for the party, I decided to use it as a base for peach shortcake. It would also make a wonderful trifle, but I don't think it works as a stand alone dessert. If you decide to try this cake, make it a full 24 hours before you plan to serve it. The recipe makes way more syrup than is needed for one cake, so you can safely cut the quantities for the syrup in half. If you like the flavor of brown butter you will enjoy this cake. Here's the recipe.

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and lightly flour an 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pan.
2) Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat until milk solids on bottom are a dark chocolate brown and butter smells nutty. Transfer to a shallow bowl and place in freezer to cool until just congealed. (Butter should be somewhat solid for mixing stage.)
3) Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4) Beat congealed brown butter, bourbon, and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
5) Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan. Smooth out top and rap pan on counter to settle batter. Bake until cake is golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean, about an hour.
6) Meanwhile, to make syrup: Combine sugar, water, and vanilla bean in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in bourbon.
7) When cake is done, remove from oven and let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Invert cake onto a rack and let cool completely, right side up, for an hour, brushing the pound cake with the syrup every 5 minutes.
Yield: 1 loaf.

46 comments
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That is really a lot of bourbon! I wonder if my husband would spare that much for my baking or if it would be the end of marital bliss!!! Maybe I can get away with bourbon though... as long as i don't touch the Irish and Scotch whisky... :-)CiaoAlessandra

All your bakes are so wonderful and as a beginner I feel like a kid in a toy store looking at all the goodies. I can learn so much from you. Happy to be your follower. Do drop by mine when you find time.Tickling Palates

Hahaha!! I just HAD to read this post - the Brown Butter and Bourbon in the title were TOO compelling! And then to find the story behind it so comical? Gold!!! Maybe SF + friend could just nibble on the cake instead of sippin'??

Brown butter is so gooooodddd in cakes and cookies it's amazing... I really laugh about your bourbon story... there is always a great bottle in the house that we tend to keep for great occasions or for people we don't see often... To me, it's like china, you gotta use it sometime!!! I'm sure the quality of booze you used really makes your cakes better:)

With that much bourbon (really good bourbon) in the cake, no one would care if it stood on it's own or not after one piece! Alas, The Baker's derby pie was a disaster because he did not take my advice and add the bourbon!! There's a lesson to be learned here I suppose.

LOL.. I can totally picture the Silver Fox reacting dramatically to you pouring the bourbon into the cake batter! I love pound cake and this is definitely an unusual spin on it.. but it sounds so wonderful and looks so moist! I wish I had a slice right now!

Haha, that's an absolute hoot! I'm sure I'd get the same response if I tried to use hubby's sipping Pyrat rum in my rum cake. Your pound cake looks so wonderfully moist and tempting, I'll have to put it on my to try list for the next get together with friends.

Oh good heavens. Great looking cake but it would have been certain d.i.v.o.r.c.e. had I been the one. LOL Reminds me of my first gifted bottle of Courvoisier Napoleon. I used it to cure a fruitcake. Who knew?

This is pretty neat! Someone pinned this on Pinterest (maybe it was you!) and I repinned it to my "state fair maybes," my file for all the recipes I'm considering making for the baking competitions at this year's fair, a day before I actually got this in my inbox! I usually check recipes before I pin them, but I could tell just by the name and the title of this one that it would be worth trying, therefore I didn't click it or find out it was yours. The internet makes it such a small world. :) It sounds WONDERFUL! And I bet you really did improve it by using the high quality bourbon in it. :) Hope your hubby recovers soon-lol!

And I don't even drink beer shhhh ! hahaha But I'm partial to Kahlua for my baked goodies :D I laugh out loud re Silver Fox reaction ! :D Love the cake ! It's appealing enough just need some colors to it to make it more presentable as a stand alone dessert :D

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